Country Joe McDonald performs by himself at the Roundhouse, London, England, on October 13th 1974. (Photo by Gus Stewart/Redferns)
Country Joe McDonald, a ‘60s psychedelic rocker who performed his Vietnam anti-war anthem with his band the Fish at Woodstock, has died.
The band confirmed the news on social media and said McDonald died Friday of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was surrounded by family.
McDonald was born in Washington, DC in 1942, but grew up in a Los Angeles suburb. He grew up in a communist family and had a strained childhood, he recalled in a documentary called ''Children of the Left,’' a film about children raised as communists.
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McDonald started playing in bands in the early ‘60s when he was living in Berkeley, California. His first recording, a collection of songs with Blair Hardman, was recorded in 1964, according to McDonald’s website. He co-founded Country Joe and the Fish with guitarist Barry Melton in Berkeley in the mid-60s amid the height of the psychedelic movement. McDonald and his band were sharing stages with other icons of the era, like Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead.
He was best known for his anti-Vietnam War song, "I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag," which he performed with the Fish before a crowd of 400,000 people at Woodstock, according to The New York Times.
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According to The Times, two of McDonald’s albums with the Fish made it to Billboard’s Top 40, but the band never saw the wild success that other San Francisco groups were experiencing at the time.
McDonald went solo in 1970, recording more than 30 albums in a career that spanned over five decades. Outside of music, he was involved in political, social and environmental activism. He published a "left-leaning" magazine called Rag Baby, "which combined political writing with satirical commentary and music," his website states.